My teeniest locket portraits to date! This little gouache pair celebrates the wedding anniversary of my wonderful artist friend (and fellow RISD/New York Academy of Art alumnus) Emily Slapin-Lufkin. Here's to many more happy years of marriage for Emily and her loving partner!

A belated welcome to my newest little cousin, Elizabeth Kay! I painted this portrait of her first day at the hospital. Now at three months, Elizabeth is already an accomplished sailor, and her hobbies include napping often and painting on pottery. Welcome to the family, Elizabeth!

Honored to be a part of two unique exhibitions this month, curated by the wonderful artists Patricia Watwood and Maya Brodsky. Special thanks to Jeffrey Carlson of Fine Art Connoisseur for his piece Figures in Blue and Daniel Maidman of the Huffington Post for his piece Dispatch From the Figurative Arts, both thoughtful reviews of "Blue Drawings: Figure, Form & The New Narrative".

Excited to be a part of this upcoming exhibition of contemporary realism at Ann Street Gallery, curated by Virginia Walsh. Fellow New York Academy of Art alumni Alaina Plowdrey and Cara DeAngelis will be showing in the exhibiting as well, happily making 2015 two-for-two so far with working and showing alongside Alaina and Cara ... Anyone planning a trip to the Hudson Valley or Dia Beacon should make a day of it and swing by charming Newburgh to check it out!

My sister and I have an amazing tradition of exchanging hand-crafted gifts for birthdays, so for her birthday this year I painted the smallest locket piece I have attempted thus far - a half inch pet portrait of her beloved cat Lovey. Lovey is sadly no longer with us, but it is my hope that my sister can feel Lovey with her whenever she wears her Lovey Locket. We miss you Lovey!

Mei Ge and Buket Savci hard at work at Klein Sun Gallery, pre-painting Liu Bolin's jacket to blend in with the iconic Boom Boom Room bar.

Thanks to my artist/gallerist friend Elizabeth Misitano, I was able to work on a few more Liu Bolin projects through Klein Sun Gallery last year. This particular project involved painting on Liu Bolin at the Standard Hotel's Boom Boom Room, as part of his "Hiding in the City" photo series. Teaming up with fellow New York Academy of Art alumni Mei Ge and Buket Savci, we camouflaged Liu Bolin into his surroundings using acrylic paint and a little Vaseline. It was some serious fast-paced work, but very fun!

Check out New York Observer writer Nate Freeman's take on the process, and the resulting jigsaw puzzle of the final image, here.

The final image: Liu Bolin blending in with his surroundings at the Standard Hotel.

It was a pleasure to spend a rainy Sunday sharing Love It, Locket, Leave It with friends and coffee this past weekend at Island Weiss Gallery! For those who could not attend, I provided context for appreciating the exquisite lockets on display and shared some of the courageous stories behind the works. In the final days of the exhibition, I want to congratulate all the exhibiting artists for stepping outside of their regular studio practice to create such personal and precious small works for this project. Love It, Locket, Leave It artists, I take my hat off to you!

2014 came to a close with the wonderful news that my most recent piece, Cornerstone, was selected by artist and writer John Seed for "Ten Memorable Paintings of 2014," his ongoing HuffingtonPost Arts & Culture blog. It was a delight to be featured alongside some of my personal favorites, like portrait artist David Kassan, and to read John's thoughts on each of the selected paintings. Happy 2015 everyone!

"Translate emotion into object. Broadcast the personal. Distill love and loss. Much and more is asked of artists, and they deliver in spades. Their innermost workings are made flesh through their hands, presented as an extension of themselves, and the viewer is transported. For this exhibition, emerging and established artists step outside of their regular studio practice to investigate the space where large emotional content meets a small container – the locket.

Love It, Locket, Leave It pays homage to the centuries-old custom of devotional and mourning jewelry by inviting contemporary artists to condense their most overwhelming experiences – those of love and loss – into poignant mementos of adoration or lament. By sealing the relics of personal relationships and powerful emotions into a locket, this exhibition gives artists a rare opportunity for both creative expression and release – a chance to love it, locket and leave it."

Often when one is asleep, there is something in consciousness which declares that what then presents itself is but a dream.– Aristotle, “On Dreams”

The territory between wakefulness and the dream state is one widely traversed by artists.Lucid dreaming, a phenomenon in which an individual is aware of their own dream state enough to attempt control within it, is a cannily apt comparison to the creation of art.Possessing the ability to give form to fleeting memories and semi-lucid moments, artists can call into question the very perception of reality at will and offer up alternatives of their own.

Curators Diana Corvelle, Cara DeAngelis and Tun Myaing have collected the works of twenty-four New York Academy of Art alumni whose work challenges, unhinges and altogether shifts perception of what should be called a “real” experience.From the elegantly surreal to the deftly tactile, these selected works speak to the endless possible deviations from reality as envisioned by an unfettered mind.

The playfulness and confidence of these works show how completely at home the artists are in their alternate reality. The life-size newspaper sculptures of Will Kurtz manage to be unnervingly lifelike in gesture and form, despite the constant and unapologetic reminders of his artistic process splashed in newsprint across the surface of each piece. Gregory Tomezsko’s paintings whip the viewer between flatness and volume, realism and stylization, all within the same composition.Shangkai Kevin Yu picks and chooses which painted subjects will be subordinate to the laws of gravity.Megan Ewart and Amanda Scuglia hint at the disarming possibility of concurrent realities playing out through overlapping movements and tumbling figures.

Many of the artists vacillate easily between levels of abstraction and realism. Even the technical feat of Angela Gram’sThe Herd creates a camouflage pattern of sorts out of the detailed bodies of man and beast alike.Ilsa Brittain allows delicately wrought marks to emerge from a field of texture in her piece Long Ago.Yungsung Jang’s masterful portraits are comprised of a veritable topographical map of layered oil paint, giving a physical depth to mirror the emotional depth the portraits evoke, just as Michelle Doll’s soft brushstrokes both reveal and veil the connection of a couple’s embrace. Nicolas Sanchez’s depictions of remembered experiences vibrate with layered colors, mark-making and personal landmarks.

Like the lucid dreamers of Aristotle, these artists have found a way to wrest control from their unruly subconscious to create works of unnatural beauty and depth from within it.Releasing themselves from the laws of nature and reason, their work touches something closer to reality than simply reality itself.

... And although the inspiring blog Women Painting Women featured my painting Protective Shell back in July, I couldn't resist mentioning this remarkable online resource of and for female artists. I am honored to be a part of the WPW family!

My ongoing obsession with lockets reached new heights with the purchase of Reaper Pro Paint 30/0 and 40/0 sable brushes, along with a minuscule brush by The Army Painter (whose size is appropriately labeled only as "Insane Detail"). While nothing can ever replace my favorite Silver Ultra Mini 20/0 liner brushes, I really loved using the teenier brushes! I finished this portrait of my handsome sweetheart just in time to wear it to the Metropolitan Museum of Art's In Miniatureexhibition, on view from August 29th through December 31st in their 624 gallery.

A few weeks ago, I had the pleasure of assisting the remarkable artist Steven Assael with a portrait workshop held at his midtown Manhattan studio. In past workshops I chose to draw in color, but for this workshop I decided to paint instead. Anyone familiar with my work knows that I seldom use oil paint. On the other hand, anyone familiar with Steven's work knows that he is a master of the medium. I am happy to report that this 6-hour study was a surprisingly wonderful experience, even for a gouache devotee like myself.

During the workshop, an idea was hatched to share some of the workshop highlights on a student-centered blog. Check out my contribution, that of fellow assistant Adam Carnes, and many others at the new Assael Students tumblr.

My exploration into cut-paper traditions took a happy turn this summer when I was asked to create a custom Ketubah, or Jewish marriage contract, for a friend's wedding. Once a purely legal document that outlined the financial responsibilities of a husband to his wife, the tradition has since evolved to symbolize mutual love and equal commitment. The modern Ketubah is an heirloom-quality work of art, cherished by couples regardless of faith. It has been a wonderful experience to create such a meaningful piece. Congratulations, S&K!